TechMentor Redmond 2017 – the short(ish) version

What is TechMentor? The answers range from the serious business case to the snarky, depending whom you ask and when. The short answer: it’s a tech conference focused on education for IT Professionals. The long answer can be found here on their site. For me, it’s a recharging of my mental batteries and a chance to learn a lot and see some fellow IT folk I only see at these things.

I’m not going to do a day by day because this is 5 full days of learning, both from the speakers and the fellow attendees. I promised a short post so here it goes!

1. We are not doing enough for security (duh) and we’re not alone in that. While our situation isn’t as dire as some, it’s not as good as it can be. After this week I have the tools needed to address some of this.

2. I could be wringing a lot more use out of Azure Active Directory for not alot more money. Things like Dynamic Groups based on user’s AD attributes and assigning Office 365 features based on group membership.

3. We all need to move from “Classic IT” to “Modern IT”. That is, from spending time redeploying software and images on OEM pc’s to simply updating what came on them to what the business user needs to function. *Hint* The Windows Configuration Designer is key here for SMB’s. This feeds into the concept of Windows as a Service.

4. If you’re going to make good training videos, the gear and the environment is as important as the software to record. A LOT of dollars can be spent to generate professional grade educational videos, but it also appears that if you aren’t TOO picky, you can get moderate grade gear for a couple of hundred bucks.

5. Building custom Desired State Configuration Resources isn’t as hard as I thought. It’s not EASY, but if you can build a function and know a few tricks of formatting it’s do-able. That’s my first blush after a good intro to the subject this week. We’ll see if I feel the same after I get knee-deep into making one. Good thing I met an expert or two on this.

6. REST and SOAP calls in PowerShell aren’t nearly as complicated when you have a good teacher walk you through it. What can be complicated is the what you do with the info you get back. This has some really interesting ideas churning in my head.

7. Regular Expressions aren’t as hard when you understand what the engine is doing behind the scenes. It’s also good to have a tool test your expressions before you turn it loose in the world.

That’s seven key takeaways in broad strokes. Now to use a “bonus thing” I learned and deconstruct those broad items into projects and tasks.